sozobe wrote:My mom says there are local reports of deaths -- I mean that's unsurprising, but I haven't seen that reported anywhere yet.
The local news here is reporting that 30-40 construction workers were on the bridge working at the time in addition to the usual cars.
Oh really? I initially thought it would have to be catastrophic, hopes were lifted slightly for a while there, but now it's looking more and more catastrophic.
My mom has been listening to the Hennepin County Medical Center press conference, I'm sure she'll have a lot of good info but I really need to get to bed.
I've gotten in touch with my dad and he's fine too.
Geez! I worry every time I cross the Cape Cod canal that the bridge will do just that. It'd be a lot farther down.
they painted it last year if you remember K and the rust is worse than ever. i take the other bridge as often as i can due to less traffic and that one ain't in much better shape.
construction going on? uh oh....
According to
latest (local) news, 9 are dead, 60 injured, and 20 still missing.
That's really terrible.
I'm amazed that some people seem to have made the drop and survived, without serious injuries. It's one of the shorter distances between bridge and river on the Mississippi -- there are bridges further down the river that are maybe 3X as high up.
Incredible...reports confirm only 4 dead?
I've seen lots of different numbers -- 7, 9.
Last night my mom (who is a nurse and works near the site of the collapse) said:
Quote:Henn Cty Med Ctr has received 22 serious, 6 critical and 1 dead. They are only getting the people that were on the south side of the river; north side went to North Memorial - three Level 1 trauma centers in the cities.
The bridge was 64 feet above the water, evidently, so I don't think any other Mpls bridges are 3 X that high. Maybe 2 X though.
64 feet ain't nothing. <shudder>
Has there been any footage of the actual collapse? It sounds like it may have been somewhat gradual rather than a dead drop.
CNN now has some footage of the actual collapse, here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bridge.collapse/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Looks like the middle sections just
dropped down.
Oh man...
Thanks, old europe.
Yeah, that's a drop alright.
Before they started the road construction and closed the ramp at the end of the bridge I went over it every day commutting to work.
The road construction was just resurfacing so they weren't dealing with the structure. I did go over the bridge twice that day and noticed they had recently poured concrete on the center section. The north end of the bridge was covered with plastic and they were wetting it down. I couldn't tell if they had poured and were curing or were still prepping.
I don't think I knew you were in Minneapolis, Parados...
Sure glad you're OK.
I've seen varying reports on whether there was any structural stuff going on. I saw something about how the bridge's "joints" were being worked on. Lots about the resurfacing. I also saw a report that a jackhammer was being used just before the collapse happened.
They had been doing a lot of jackhammering the previous 6 weeks. There were days I probably saw 12-15 jackhammers going at one time. Plus there had been a lot of heavy equipment on the bridge. All that equipment was off the bridge yesterday and parked up on ramps which was probably a good thing for the cars that went down.
The word here from Dept of Transportation is nothing structural.
It sounds like they were in the middle of changing work crews with the night crew coming on. Only one worker missing. There were times I saw 40 workers or more standing on the bridge. One of the bits in the StarTrib this morning was the project manager for the work was on the end of the bridge and fell 30' but walked away.
Quote:Cracking, vibration may have contributed to collapse, former NTSB official says
By Pat Doyle, Star Tribune
Last update: August 02, 2007 - 8:00 AM
Investigators looking into the cause of the Interstate Hwy. 35W bridge collapse are likely to focus on two primary causes -- vibration and fatigue cracking, the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said in an interview early this morning.
Jim Burnett said they should look at whether vibration from the construction work and from a train that was passing under the bridge contributed to the collapse.
"Vibration is one of things that cause cracking to propagate," he said. "They will be looking at that."
(That's just an excerpt, there's more.)
http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1339411.html
I noticed that train in one of the pictures. That makes sense.
Of course, news here are full of that, and people questioning if such could happen here, too.
According to engineers, such is most impossible in Germany (and Europe), since we don't have such bridge constructions.
Anyone remember the collapse of the Silver Bridge?
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and was named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio (near Gallipolis, Ohio) over the Ohio River.
The collapsed Silver Bridge, as seen from the Ohio side.On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was choked with rush hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure, due to a small defect, of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain. It was also noted that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than usual.
